Her mother isn't known and she was taken in by her grandmother when her British father, Samuel Newcomb, died.

[1] Newcomb had emigrated to Tasmania to benefit her health and she first lived in Hobart Town.

[3] In the following year she became known to Dr Alexander Thomson and his family and in the March 1837 she moved to their house in Geelong.

[2] Three years later Anne Drysdale arrived at Port Phillip in March 1840 and soon after became a guest of Dr Thomson.

[1] A cottage, built for them, was completed in August 1841 and they established a home together with a piano, a garden and paths.

Anne had a high regard for Newcomb noting that she was the "most clever person I have ever met with.

On 18 July they settled the sale of the property from Mr. Austin and they engaged the architect Charles Laing who in 1849[5] designed the stone house Coryule,[1] overlooking Port Phillip Bay.

James Davy Dodgson (1824-1892)[6] at the recently built Wesley Church in Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.